There’s that famous Spider-Man meme where you see two Spideys pointing at one another and that’s a pretty good description as to what happened to both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv on Thursday night in Euroleague action.

It’s as if the two Tel Aviv teams switched spots and results compared to what they had been on Tuesday night in continental play when the Reds beat Baskonia and the yellow-and-blue fell to Fenerbahce as this time around Maccabi downed Baskonia 89-83 and Hapoel lost to Fenerbahce 74-68.

For Dimitrios Itoudis’s team, a game against Fenerbahce was without a doubt a huge test, going toe-to-toe with the defending champions. But not only that, it was a chance for the bench boss, his assistant Stefanos Dedas and Jonathan Motley an opportunity to go up against their former club. It was a chance to show that they shouldn’t have been replaced by others and an opportunity to show their wares in a high profile clash that took place in Munich.

But there was no way that Sarunas Jasikevicius and his troops were going to allow Hapoel Tel Aviv to just walk in and do as they please. Each and every one of the Fenerbahce players committed to playing the toughest as nails defense that they could and limit the reds as much as possible which they did by keeping the score down for the first half finishing the opening quarter all knotted up at 13-13 while taking a minuscule 28-27 lead at halftime.

However, Fener ripped off a 11-0 run to start off the third quarter adding onto their 7-0 stretch to end the first half as Bonzie Colson and Tarik Biebrovic hoped their team coast into the lead for good as the reds were able to cut down the lead to about 4-points on a number of occasions but it wasn’t meant to be on this nigh. It felt as if Hapoel and Fenerbahce would have played this game for hours upon end the result would gave still been the same. The reds were never going to win this game if it had gone into Friday night Kiddush.

Over in Belgrade, Maccabi took care of Baskonia as TJ Leaf starred for Oded Katash’s crew in the win. Sure, the yellow-and-blue didn’t demolish the Basque club like the reds had done, but they did play well enough to win and never really look like they were threatened and would come up with the short end of the stick.

Baskonia did tie the game up late in the third at 66-66 but Jimmy Clark came back with a huge 3-pointer to put Maccabi back in the lead as they kept the visitors at an arm’s length for the balance of the game just as they had done beforehand as well. One of the keys was that Maccabi didn’t let Baskonia flip the score and take the lead despite being so close a number of times, but Katash’s team was able to keep the advantage and that led to the win.

But it wasn’t just keeping that leas, it was how they did so as the game hit the stretch run. It was a tremendous performance by Leaf to go along with fine finishes by Roman Sorkin and the aforementioned Clark. The trio dominated the play when all of the chips were in the middle of the table, ready to be taken. Sorkin scored a pair of hoops to create a bit of breathing room which was followed up by Leaf hitting a pair of 3-pointers and then a deuce in short order to create the necessary separation in order to take the win.

Leaf has arguably his best game in a Maccabi uniform with 19 points and going 3/3 from deep in a game that he needed to shoot well as he finally had the confidence to go from downtown after having barely taken long shots this season. A good Leaf will bode well for Maccabi and after breaking out with not just 19 points and 7 rebounds along with a 26 efficiency rating, it was the maturity and confidence he showed on the court.

Next up for the two Tel Aviv teams is the Israeli League Derby slated for Monday night at Yad Eliyahu. Hapoel will look to avenge the Euroleague Derby loss while Maccabi will want to make it 2-0 over their city rivals.

In addition to wanting to find a way to show that they are tops in Tel Aviv, the reds want to make up for the Winner Cup final loss this past Saturday night where Hapoel Jerusalem took the win. But as limited as the rosters are for the Winner Cup it’s even more limited in the league as Itoudis will need to figure out as to which five players will grace the court for Hapoel on Monday night. Who will give him the chance to win.

But it’s not that simple as 1-2-3 it also depends if he wants to dip deeper into the 10 player limit that the clubs are allowed to register for the season. Once those ten spots are used up that’s it, no more foreigners. Will Dan Oturu and Vasilije Micic be listed? That’s the biggest question and can invariably swing the situation of one club over the other.

The other issue that Hapoel will need to deal with is Tomer Ginat being out of action due to a shoulder injury suffered during the club’s win over Maccabi Raanana. The loss of Ginat because he’s an Israeli is crucial for the Israeli league and can make a huge impact on the final result.

Maccabi’s five are a bit more cut and dried but who knows what Lonnie Walker’s status will be for the big game while Hapoel after having played just 16 minutes and not being on the court in crunch time. That’s something the yellow-and-blue will need to keep a very close eye on going forward as the club will need to determine what his role will be game in and game out.

Katash is also dealing with an injury situation as John Dibartolomeo also didn’t plat the past game as the question will be if he’s available or not for the Derby. The guard will want to play and his absence will also be felt by Maccabi and its faithful.

But as they say, injuries are part of the game and both teams will need to deal with their respective rosters as a decision here or there may decide the game. There’s still plenty of time until the teams need to submit their 12-man roster, close to 72 hours in fact for a game that tips off at 20:50 and a lot can change between now and then.

However, what is clear and won’t change is that each team can throw out their Euroleague records of 8-3 for Hapoel and 3-8 for Maccabi as Derbies have rules of their own.